The Mountain Poem By Robert Frost

The Mountain

                   - By Robert Frost

The mountain held the town as in a shadow

I saw so much before I slept there once:

I noticed that I missed stars in the west,

Where its black body cut into the sky.

Near me it seemed: I felt it like a wall

Behind which I was sheltered from a wind.

And yet between the town and it I found,

When I walked forth at dawn to see new things,

Were fields, a river, and beyond, more fields.

The river at the time was fallen away,

And made a widespread brawl on cobble-stones;

But the signs showed what it had done in spring;

Good grass-land gullied out, and in the grass

Ridges of sand, and driftwood stripped of bark.

I crossed the river and swung round the mountain.

And there I met a man who moved so slow

With white-faced oxen in a heavy cart,

It seemed no hand to stop him altogether.

"What town is this?" I asked.

"This? Lunenburg."

Then I was wrong: the town of my sojourn,

Beyond the bridge, was not that of the mountain,

But only felt at night its shadowy presence.

"Where is your village? Very far from here?"

"There is no village—only scattered farms.

We were but sixty voters last election.

We can't in nature grow to many more:

That thing takes all the room!" He moved his goad.

The mountain stood there to be pointed at.

Pasture ran up the side a little way,

And then there was a wall of trees with trunks:

After that only tops of trees, and cliffs

Imperfectly concealed among the leaves.

A dry ravine emerged from under boughs

Into the pasture.

"That looks like a path.

Is that the way to reach the top from here?—

Not for this morning, but some other time:

I must be getting back to breakfast now."

"I don't advise your trying from this side.

There is no proper path, but those that have

Been up, I understand, have climbed from Ladd's.

That's five miles back. You can't mistake the place:

They logged it there last winter some way up.

I'd take you, but I'm bound the other way."

"You've never climbed it?"

"I've been on the sides

Deer-hunting and trout-fishing. There's a brook

That starts up on it somewhere—I've heard say

Right on the top, tip-top—a curious thing.

But what would interest you about the brook,

It's always cold in summer, warm in winter.

One of the great sights going is to see

It steam in winter like an ox's breath,

Until the bushes all along its banks

Are inch-deep with the frosty spines and bristles—

You know the kind. Then let the sun shine on it!"

"There ought to be a view around the world

From such a mountain—if it isn't wooded

Clear to the top." I saw through leafy screens

Great granite terraces in sun and shadow,

Shelves one could rest a knee on getting up—

With depths behind him sheer a hundred feet;

Or turn and sit on and look out and down,

With little ferns in crevices at his elbow.

"As to that I can't say. But there's the spring,

Right on the summit, almost like a fountain.

That ought to be worth seeing."

"If it's there.

You never saw it?"

"I guess there's no doubt

About its being there. I never saw it.

It may not be right on the very top:

It wouldn't have to be a long way down

To have some head of water from above,

And a good distance down might not be noticed

By anyone who'd come a long way up.

One time I asked a fellow climbing it

To look and tell me later how it was."

"What did he say?"

"He said there was a lake

Somewhere in Ireland on a mountain top."

"But a lake's different. What about the spring?"

"He never got up high enough to see.

That's why I don't advise your trying this side.

He tried this side. I've always meant to go

And look myself, but you know how it is:

It doesn't seem so much to climb a mountain

You've worked around the foot of all your life.

What would I do? Go in my overalls,

With a big stick, the same as when the cows

Haven't come down to the bars at milking time?

Or with a shotgun for a stray black bear?

'Twouldn't seem real to climb for climbing it."

"I shouldn't climb it if I didn't want to—

Not for the sake of climbing. What's its name?"

"We call it Hor: I don't know if that's right."

"Can one walk around it? Would it be too far?"

"You can drive round and keep in Lunenburg,

But it's as much as ever you can do,

The boundary lines keep in so close to it.

Hor is the township, and the township's Hor—

And a few houses sprinkled round the foot,

Like boulders broken off the upper cliff,

Rolled out a little farther than the rest."

"Warm in December, cold in June, you say?"

"I don't suppose the water's changed at all.

You and I know enough to know it's warm

Compared with cold, and cold compared with warm.

But all the fun's in how you say a thing."

"You've lived here all your life?"

"Ever since Hor

Was no bigger than a——" What, I did not hear.

He drew the oxen toward him with light touches

Of his slim goad on nose and offside flank,

Gave them their marching orders and was moving.

What is Motor Fitness

The ability of a person to perform successfully in any physical activity or sport is referred as motor fitness. Motor fitness is the skill related fitness with direct relevance to an individual's performance in games and sports.

Components of Motor Fitness

Speed

The ability to move one's body from one point to another as fast as possible is speed. Short distance sprints like 30 meters, 40 meters, 50 meters, 200 meters, etc. should be practiced more for speed. Speed is needed in games like soccer, baseball or even gymnastics.

Power

The application of speed and strength to produce a muscular movement is power. This skill of power is required almost in all sports. Once we use power to perform our task quickly and as forcefully as one can be, the result is powerful. For instance the power needed by a player to throw javelin or power needed by a player for a long jump or the power needed for a player for a shot put. One should practice more of exercises like vertical jumps, hurdle jumps or push-ups.

Agility

The ability to change the direction of one's body quickly and efficiently along with the speed of your travel is agility. For games like tennis, kho-kho, hockey and football agility plays an important role. One should practice more of exercises like zigzag running, kho-kho and shuttle run for developing good agility.

Co-ordination

The ability to use one's body parts and muscles to move smoothly and accurately is co-ordination.  It is an important skill that recruits senses such as sight and hearing in conjunction with body parts to perform tasks accurately along with efficient movement. One should practice more of skipping, catching objects, juggling etc. for improving co-ordination skills.

Balance

The ability to remain in equilibrium while moving or stationary is balance. Static balance and dynamic balance are components of balance. Exercises like standing on one leg, frog jump etc. helps in improving balance. Activities such as ballet, skiing, gymnastics, dance, ice hockey and other sports are totally dependent on balance for smooth functioning.

Reaction Time

The amount of time consumed by a sportsman to respond to a stimulus is reaction time. This component of motor fitness is important in most of the sports. It is all about responding to the situation and reacting to it. The reaction time plays an important role in an individual's performance. Some of the exercise that should be practiced more for successful reaction time includes running on different signals and positions.

Motor Fitness Test Exercises

The components of motor fitness can be determined by various motor fitness tests. Some of the exercises that determine motor fitness test are mentioned in the table below:

No	Components	Motor Fitness Test Exercises
1	Speed	-      Short sprints - 20m, 30m, 50m
		-      High knee, Buttock kick, both leg hop or one leg hop
2	Agility	-      Shuttle run, zigzag running, games like kho-kho
3	Power	-      Clap & pushups, Vertical jump, jumping small hurdles
4	Reaction Time	-      Run on different signals and position
5	Balance	-      Standing on one leg, Frog balance, stork stand
6	Co-ordination	-      Skipping, catching ball, Frisbee, ring etc.
		-      Football, Handball, Basketball, Volleyball

Good-Bye, And Keep Cold Poem By Robert Frost

Good-Bye, And Keep Cold

- By Robert Frost

This saying good-bye on the edge of the dark

  And cold to an orchard so young in the bark

  Reminds me of all that can happen to harm

  An orchard away at the end of the farm

  All winter, cut off by a hill from the house.

  I don't want it girdled by rabbit and mouse,

  I don't want it dreamily nibbled for browse

  By deer, and I don't want it budded by grouse.

  (If certain it wouldn't be idle to call

  I'd summon grouse, rabbit, and deer to the wall

  And warn them away with a stick for a gun.)

  I don't want it stirred by the heat of the sun.

  (We made it secure against being, I hope,

  By setting it out on a northerly slope.)

  No orchard's the worse for the wintriest storm;

  But one thing about it, it mustn't get warm.

  "How often already you've had to be told,

  Keep cold, young orchard. Good-bye and keep cold.

  Dread fifty above more than fifty below."

  I have to be gone for a season or so.

  My business awhile is with different trees,

  Less carefully nourished, less fruitful than these,

  And such as is done to their wood with an axe—

  Maples and birches and tamaracks.

  I wish I could promise to lie in the night

  And think of an orchard's arboreal plight

  When slowly (and nobody comes with a light)

  Its heart sinks lower under the sod.

  But something has to be left to God.

In A Vale Poem By Robert Frost

In A Vale

                    - by Robert Frost

When I was young, we dwelt in a vale

    By a misty fen that rang all night,

    And thus it was the maidens pale

    I knew so well, whose garments trail

    Across the reeds to a window light.

    The fen had every kind of bloom,

    And for every kind there was a face,

    And a voice that has sounded in my room

    Across the sill from the outer gloom.

    Each came singly unto her place,

    But all came every night with the mist;

    And often they brought so much to say

    Of things of moment to which, they wist,

    One so lonely was fain to list,

    That the stars were almost faded away

    Before the last went, heavy with dew,

    Back to the place from which she came—

    Where the bird was before it flew,

    Where the flower was before it grew,

    Where bird and flower were one and the same.

    And thus it is I know so well

    Why the flower has odor, the bird has song.

    You have only to ask me, and I can tell.

    No, not vainly there did I dwell,

    Nor vainly listen all the night long.

How to Help Your Overweight Child Lose Weight

A child being overweight or obese is one of the common causes of concern for parents these days. It starts all with a child being chubby in childhood which parent adore. Slowly and gradually the chubbiness starts turning into obesity which is initially ignored by parents. For them all that matters is that the child looks healthy. But before they realize that their healthy child is growing more towards the heavier side with huge bellies and double chins, it is quite too late. This realization dawns only after the child starts complaining about being tired, lethargic or even breathless with or without any physical activity. Ignoring the fact that a child may have weight issues is a mistake a parent usually does. It is only when the child starts to develop medical conditions due to their weight issues, the parent realizes that the child needs help. Parents run to doctors and friends with complains like, 'my daughter is overweight what can I do?' or 'My child is overweight but he eats healthy, so how?' or even questions like, 'Is my child overweight?' In the current scenario more and more kids are facing the issue of being overweight or obese.

One symptom of overweight children is  Belly fat 

Symptoms of Childhood Obesity

A child being overweight or obese could be kept under check, if a parent is aware of the symptoms of childhood obesity. How do you know whether your child is overweight or not, is all upon these symptoms. Just relate any or few of these symptoms with your child's condition and you have your answer. You could check just one box or more than one, it all tells you how overweight your child is! Once you know the symptoms of obesity your child relates to, you would be in a better position to explain the same to your doctor for further help and analysis. Here are few symptoms of childhood obesity -

1. Your child often complains of his clothes being too tight and demands for large sizes, even though they were bought recently.

2. You notice your child's belly fat and an increasing weight gain around his waist.

3. You can notice large deposits of fats or  stretchmarks around your child's chin, neck, hips, abdomen, thigh and arms.

4. Body Mass Index of the child confirms being overweight and obesity.

5. Your child complains constantly of being tired.

6. Your child has difficulty walking and running.

7. Your child is lethargic and always complain of being sleepy or drowsy.

8. Your child is fat as compared to the kids of his class.

9. Your child constantly complains of have trouble breathing while sleeping.

10. Your child constantly complains or faces gastric problems or even constipation.

11. In overweight girls delayed menstruation could be an symptom you cannot ignore.

12. In overweight boys delayed puberty is one of the symptoms.

13. Your child complains of difficulty breathing while doing any physical activity.

14. Your child complains of lower backaches, dislocated hip or flat feet.

15. Weighing scale confirms constant weight gain in your child.

How does a doctor determine your child's obesity?

When you check the obesity symptoms with your child and few of those symptoms relate to him or her, you could take up your child's condition with your doctor. A doctor can help you confirm whether your child has overweight issues. Normally a  doctor keeps tab of the regular checkup of a child right from infancy to his growing years which helps him observe the child carefully for weight issues. In such cases a doctor warns parents immediately if he finds anything wrong with the weight chart of a child. But any sudden symptoms that were not observed before and are happening recently should be checked with a doctor. A doctor would determine whether your child is overweight or obese by carrying out a thorough examination. He would check your child's Body Mass Index (BMI). The family history of child would also be taken in concern, for any problems such as obesity in parents, diabetes, sleep apnea, heart conditions, blood pressure problems etc.

Should a Parent Be Concerned about their child being overweight or obese?

The answer is yes. A parent should definitely be concerned about their child's weight issues. The reason is with a child being overweight, he or she is more threatened with serious health issues which may have long term effects. An overweight child may develop serious medical problems in initial or even later part of their life as compared to the other children. Imagine this, currently if your child has issues such as breathlessness or lethargy - what would happen when they grow? These problems would grow with them! Today's breathlessness may turn to asthma! Apart from medical problems a child will have to face severe effects of childhood obesity in their life.

And hence we as parent should help our child to fight obesity or overweight issues. What we do today is going to help them in the near future. The efforts would count and the child would be really thankful to his parents for the same.

Learn more about overweight child diet plans

How to Help Your Overweight Child Lose Weight

Include Healthy Food in Your Child's Diet

If your child has a habit of eating junk, it needs to stop right away. No more candies, chocolates, chips, cold drink and all those junk. But you can't just put a stop to whole thing immediately. Start putting a stop slowly. Other than three to four servings that your child has of his favorite junk food daily, limit it to two servings. Include healthy food rich in fiber, protein, vitamin, minerals in the next two servings. This way a child is happy and the mother is happy too. Plus try different overweight child diet plans and include whichever is suitable to your child. 

Listen To Your Doctor

Do not put your child on any weight loss program without consulting your doctor. You can actually consult your doctor for any weight-loss program which is essential for your child and only if he suggests, you should carry on such weight loss schedule. Get your child treated for any sleeping disorders such as sleep apnea or other health problems due to obesity.

Be a Good Role Model

Children are known to be good learners. And parents have to remember that! Your healthy choices towards life can help your child to make healthy choices for his life. If you live a passive life, your child would follow the same. And hence it is important that parents be a good role model for overweight children by making healthy choices such as eating healthy food, being physically active and enjoying active pastimes.

Limiting Your Child's Screen Time

Set a limited screen time for your overweight child. Be it use of mobile phones, computer, online games, PlayStation or just watching TV. Set a time limit for daily usage of all these electronic appliances. Like you could allow them one hour of television time and one hour of computer usage every day.  Children spend most of the time in their room playing games or watching television. This passive hours promote sedentary and lethargic lifestyle. Hence curtail the time limit for screen time usage for your child.

Planning a Regular Workout Routine For Your Overweight Child

Starting slow, promote a regular work-time for your overweight child. Make the plans by taking into consideration your child's likes and dislikes. If your child enjoys swimming then plan a 30 minute to 1 hour swimming session at least twice or thrice a week. Plan a walking schedule or a jogging schedule with your overweight child. Do not force him to work out for long hours. Start slow and allow him to adjust according to the schedule and then slowly increase  schedule from twice a day to thrice a day. You could alternatively put two or three activities schedules for the whole week. For instance swimming twice a week, active past time such as table tennis or football once or twice a week or even daily walks.

Discussing Obesity with Your Child

A sudden change in daily routine may amuse children. Children are unaware of how bad a problem of being overweight could be. Hence parents can help them understand in easy words. A child's age needs to be taken into consideration while making him understand and discuss obesity. It may be a bit easier to discuss the problem of obesity with elder kids rather than younger. But with simple words and little understanding a parent can easily discuss this problem with children. It is essential that a child realizes how important it is to stay healthy and how too much of junk food is ruining their health.

Appreciate Your Child's Efforts

Appreciate the efforts your child puts into it. If your overweight child participates in any school event such as a dance competition or even a sport activity, there are possibilities that he may not fare well in the beginning. But still he has tried. Even if he fails or does poorly in any physical activity or school activity, praise him for his efforts and motivate him to carry on. You can reward him for his efforts by cooking him his favorite sweet or any other gift.

Top Ten Tips To Help Your Child Lose Weight

1. Ensure that your child gets enough sleep daily. Lack of sleep is directly associated with weight gain according to some research studies.

2. Helping your child lose weight by starving him is not the right approach. Instead minimize his portions and include wholesome food in his daily diet.

3. Try to monitor your child's weight on a regular basis.

4. Encourage your child to participate in school activities such as sports, drama and dance.

5. Cut down on your child's daily dosage of aerated drinks and replace it with fresh fruit juices.

6. Teach your child to chew his food and eat slowly.

7. Once you limit your child's television hours, make sure that this rule applies to everybody in the household. This behavior motivates your child positively.

8. Encourage your child to carry out simple fun activity at home when he is alone. This could include playing with ball, shooting baskets, cycling, skipping.

9. Plan family active outings for weekend such as camping, hiking, bird watching, nature trails or a long walk.

10. Let your child know that you will always be there to support him. Your support will mean a lot to him and would inspire him to lose weight and be fit. 

The Fear Poem By Robert Frost

The Fear

                                     -  By Robert Frost

A lantern light from deeper in the barn

Shone on a man and woman in the door

And threw their lurching shadows on a house

Near by, all dark in every glossy window.

A horse's hoof pawed once the hollow floor,

And the back of the gig they stood beside

Moved in a little. The man grasped a wheel,

The woman spoke out sharply, "Whoa, stand still!"

"I saw it just as plain as a white plate,"

She said, "as the light on the dashboard ran

Along the bushes at the roadside—a man's face.

You must have seen it too."

"I didn't see it.

Are you sure——"

"Yes, I'm sure!"

"—it was a face?"

"Joel, I'll have to look. I can't go in,

I can't, and leave a thing like that unsettled.

Doors locked and curtains drawn will make no difference.

I always have felt strange when we came home

To the dark house after so long an absence,

And the key rattled loudly into place

Seemed to warn someone to be getting out

At one door as we entered at another.

What if I'm right, and someone all the time—

Don't hold my arm!"

"I say it's someone passing."

"You speak as if this were a travelled road.

You forget where we are. What is beyond

That he'd be going to or coming from

At such an hour of night, and on foot too.

What was he standing still for in the bushes?"

"It's not so very late—it's only dark.

There's more in it than you're inclined to say.

Did he look like——?"

"He looked like anyone.

I'll never rest to-night unless I know.

Give me the lantern."

"You don't want the lantern."

She pushed past him and got it for herself.

"You're not to come," she said. "This is my business.

If the time's come to face it, I'm the one

To put it the right way. He'd never dare—

Listen! He kicked a stone. Hear that, hear that!

He's coming towards us. Joel, go in—please.

Hark!—I don't hear him now. But please go in."

"In the first place you can't make me believe it's——"

"It is—or someone else he's sent to watch.

And now's the time to have it out with him

While we know definitely where he is.

Let him get off and he'll be everywhere

Around us, looking out of trees and bushes

Till I sha'n't dare to set a foot outdoors.

And I can't stand it. Joel, let me go!"

"But it's nonsense to think he'd care enough."

"You mean you couldn't understand his caring.

Oh, but you see he hadn't had enough—

Joel, I won't—I won't—I promise you.

We mustn't say hard things. You mustn't either."

"I'll be the one, if anybody goes!

But you give him the advantage with this light.

What couldn't he do to us standing here!

And if to see was what he wanted, why

He has seen all there was to see and gone."

He appeared to forget to keep his hold,

But advanced with her as she crossed the grass.

"What do you want?" she cried to all the dark.

She stretched up tall to overlook the light

That hung in both hands hot against her skirt.

"There's no one; so you're wrong," he said.

"There is.—

What do you want?" she cried, and then herself

Was startled when an answer really came.

"Nothing." It came from well along the road.

She reached a hand to Joel for support:

The smell of scorching woollen made her faint.

"What are you doing round this house at night?"

"Nothing." A pause: there seemed no more to say.

And then the voice again: "You seem afraid.

I saw by the way you whipped up the horse.

I'll just come forward in the lantern light

And let you see."

"Yes, do.—Joel, go back!"

She stood her ground against the noisy steps

That came on, but her body rocked a little.

"You see," the voice said.

"Oh." She looked and looked.

"You don't see—I've a child here by the hand."

"What's a child doing at this time of night——?"

"Out walking. Every child should have the memory

Of at least one long-after-bedtime walk.

What, son?"

"Then I should think you'd try to find

Somewhere to walk——"

"The highway as it happens—

We're stopping for the fortnight down at Dean's."

"But if that's all—Joel—you realize—

You won't think anything. You understand?

You understand that we have to be careful.

This is a very, very lonely place.

Joel!" She spoke as if she couldn't turn.

The swinging lantern lengthened to the ground,

It touched, it struck it, clattered and went out.

Amazing Facts About Bats

Bats are the second largest mammal after rodents with almost 1000 species found all around the world. Most of the bats are nocturnal and could be found hanging upside down on trees, mountain cliffs or caves roosting during day. After roosting, a bat bird starts flying from its resting place in search of food. Bats roost a lot during day time and between bots of feeding during night.

Echolocation

During nights bats find their food either by sight or scent by using sound waves. This process is called echolocation. A microbat burst high frequency sound to find prey in the dark. This high frequency sound bounces off the prey such as a moth or a rat and thus the bat pinpoints the location of its food; by listening to the returning echo of their sound. Fishing bats too use echolocation to detect fish below the water surface.

Types of Bats

Bats species are divided into two groups - Megachiroptera or megabats and Microchiroptera or microbats.

Megabats

A Malaysian Flying Fox is a large fruit bat

Fruit bats fall under the category of megachiroptera or megabats. Fruit bats are also known as flying foxes and are found in tropical and subtropical parts of the continents of Asia, Africa and Australia. Most of the megabats eat fruits but few species are known to eat flowers, insects, pollen etc. The fruit bats prefer living in tropical belt due to abundant food supply. Megabats lack a tail unlike most species of microbats.

Microbats

Microbats are often mislead with the term insect-eating bats but they also feed on fruits, meat, fish, pollen as well as blood. These bats are found in tropical as well as temperate regions. Microbats are often known to roost in tree holes. Large microbats such as  False Vampire bats eat mice, rats and frogs.

20 Amazing Facts about Bats

1. Bats are the only mammals that can fly.

2. Bats find their food either by sight or scent by using sound waves which is a process called echolocation.

3. A bat's wing consists of an elastic membrane that is stretched between the elongated fingers of its front limbs and back of its hind limbs.

4. Btas have a clawed thumb on the edge of each wing.

5. Bats could get killed by frost and hence they hibernate in cold places where they would be protected by frost.

6. The place where a bat roosts is known as hibernaculum. This place has to be damp so that bats do not dry out. Perfect locations for roosting includes caves, tree holes, loft spaces etc.

7. Insect eating bats have large ears which are essential for echolocation.

8. In a long-eared bat, ears are almost as long as bat's head and body combined.

9. A horseshoe bat catches prey by emitting sounds through their noses.

10. Epauletted fruit bats have large eyes and nose.

11. Vampire bats feed on the blood of mammals or small birds. They make a wound on the ear or ankle of the prey with help of their razor like incisor teeth.

12. Smaller bats such as pipistrelles catch tiny gnats and mosquitoes.

13. Large bats such as noctules feed on cockchafers and dung beetles.

A Bumblebee bat is also known as Kitti's hog-nosed bat

14. Fruit bats squash ripe fruits against ridges on the roof of their mouth.. They then spit out the rind and large seeds.

15. Some species of bats are in danger of extinction due to greatest threats to their survival which  include destruction of habitat, pesticide and human vandalism.

16. Some animals that prey on bats include Mongrove rat snake, bat hawks, owls and cats.


17. The largest bat known is the Malaysian Flying Fox which can have a wingspan of up to 5 to 6 feet.

18. The smallest bat is known to be a Bumblebee bat which weighs only about 2 grams and is 30 mm long.

19. During sleeping, the toes of the bat have special locking mechanism which prevents fall when hanging upside down.

20. Like any other mammal, a female bat carries her young inside her womb until birth.